The Tories have brought in Barack Obama's campaign manager Jim Messina, described by one observer as a 'partisan Democrat'.

Sources have confirmed that Messina will be advising the party’s controversial strategist Lynton Crosby, as well as Tory chairman Grant Shapps and Lord Feldman.

But though his brief is likely to focus on the upcoming election, PRWeek understands that he will be advising the party ‘from time to time’ and will not work on the campaign in an official capacity.

Messina oversaw the US president’s 2012 re-election campaign after a spell as deputy chief of staff in the first administration.

Messina 'gets things done' says Jag Singh, a former digital adviser to the Democrats. 'If you send him an email at 11 at night you'll have an email back at 11.05 saying "done".

'He has been quite partisan - he is very Democratic and that could lead to a shift in the way people look at the Tories.'

'He knows how to talk to voters though this is his first non-US role so I don't know how it will pan out. It is a different political system over here from the two-party system in the States.'

Before working on Obama's presidential campaign Messina ran a number of senatorial campaigns for Democrats in the mid-West of the United States.

Singh added that Messina 'gets' the digital campaigning which played a key role in Obama's success. Messina is the chair of Organizing for Action, an organization which promotes Obama's policies and inherited the Obama campaign database.